In college athletics, every season and each team is different.
NC State wrestling has navigated the changes to have now finished among the nation’s top 10 in the final coaches poll of the regular season four straight years.
This season was no guarantee to wind up in that familiar place following the loss of six starters, including a trio of All-Americans in 2018 national champion Michael Macchiavello, Kevin Jack — one of just five in program history to earn three All-America honors (which require a top-eight finish at NCAAs) — and Pete Renda, who were each four-year starters.
It was a complete changing of the guard. Although NC State had some fifth-year seniors stepping into the lineup this winter, they had never been a full-time starter until January (141-pounder Jamel Morris), had started on and off throughout their career at three different weights (197-pounder Malik McDonald) or were completely new to the school (149-pound graduate transfer Justin Oliver, who was an All-American as a redshirt freshman at Central Michigan). Five of the other seven starters are redshirt sophomores, and another is a true freshman.
“Every year you get a puzzle,” seventh-year head coach Pat Popolizio explained. “It’s the same picture every year, but at the end of the year you cut it into 1,000 pieces. You have to put it back together the next year.
“This year is no different, we’re putting the pieces to the puzzle back together, it’s just taking a little bit longer.”
Returning 157-pound NCAA finalist Hayden Hidlay, a redshirt sophomore who is one of just three in the lineup who have previously earned All-America honors, called it an “up-and-down year” for both himself and the team.
After going through his debut season perfect and entering the national tournament as the only undefeated freshman, Hidlay lost two of his first seven matches this year.
Similar to its star, NC State has experienced uncharacteristic disappointments this season. After going 51-5 in duals the last three campaigns — with losses only to Virginia Tech (twice), and traditional powerhouses Nebraska, Oklahoma State and Ohio State — the Pack did not show its usual dominance early on this year.
It had to eek out a one-point win at Old Dominion in late November, won on criteria (which means the final match score was tied) against Nebraska two weeks later, lost to Wyoming on criteria Dec. 29 and was routed at Ohio State Jan. 6. On Feb. 10, the Wolfpack was upset by Pitt, 18-16, at home.
The latter marked the program’s first ACC loss to somebody other than Virginia Tech since falling at Maryland Feb. 15, 2014. But it also provided a turning point for this season.
After a post-match talk where Hidlay noted his coach had to “say some really truthful and hard things” to the team, the Pack started to come together.
Hidlay later wrote a heartfelt letter to the team — “a very intellectual, in-depth analysis,” per his coach — and the captains met. When the squad returned to practice after a Monday off, players-only meetings were held before each workout that week where every athlete talked about his personal and team goals for the year, and how they would contribute to them.
“Across the board, we all learned a lot about each other,” Hidlay said. “That was probably the first time that we were all in cohesion this year. It was tough, we had guys that broke down and cried because it meant so much to them.
“There was a little bit of a divide amongst some team members, but we got it all figured out after that. It was a week of church sessions, if you want to call it that, and not a lot of us had been used to that. But it was really important and something that we needed to figure out. Guys are holding each other accountable now because we realized that we all have the same goals.
“We went around all 30-odd guys, and everybody said the same things for the most part — they all want to win ACCs and bring home an NCAA trophy.”
After what Hidlay dubbed the “airing of grievances,” backups are doing everything to help the 10 starters be as ready as possible for the postseason. When practice is over and the starters get on aerodyne bikes to manage their weight, others stick around to make sure they are always above 75 RPMs. Any request from a starter for extra work is now met with an affirmative.
“The backups and redshirts have been just as important to this whole process as the starters,” Hidlay said. “They didn’t let us go through a bad day of training, and it was huge. … They’re willing to take time out of their workout, just because they know at this point of the year it’s based around the 10 starters.
“We’ve really grown a lot as a team. That [Pitt] loss, it was awful in the moment and it sucked, but I think it showed us who we really were, who we really needed to be.”
Hidlay and Popolizio agreed that in the two matches following the Pittsburgh loss, the team got back to the pillars its recent success was built on — “digging deep, fighting hard, being ultra-competitive and winning with hard work,” according to the coach.
“We got away from that a little bit,” Popolizio continued. “We did some soul searching there. Guys realized we do have something special going here, we just need to get back to our old roots of what got us to where we are. It was an eye opener, and I think guys have responded really well to it.”
The immediate response was a 20-14 win at Chapel Hill, which wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. After clinching the dual meet, Popolizio rested his starters in the final two bouts.
That set up a finale where the winner of the Virginia Tech-NC State match would share the ACC regular-season crown with Carolina. Despite starting in a 10-0 hole, NC State recovered and wound up winning on criteria to get momentum back on their side heading into the postseason, which starts Saturday with the ACC Championships in Blacksburg.
“We hit our stride starting with the UNC match,” Hidlay said. “We had a lot of injuries that kept us from full strength throughout much of the year, and even when we were at full strength we struggled a bit at times with what our identity was, just because we lost so many guys that held up the core values of our program.
“[After the loss to Pitt], we went back to our true identity of being really gritty, really tough. … I remember the post-match speech [after Pitt] was one of my lowest points since I’ve been at NC State. It sucked, it really did. But if it wasn’t for that I don’t know if we would have come together like we did. Since that loss, we’ve really grown as a team and guys have given 110 percent.”
“You replace six starters, and it’s just totally different, and then you bring 17 new freshmen in, so there was a lot going on,” Popolizio admitted. “We had to get this ship steered in the right direction and it’s been a little challenging, a little rocky. But at the end of the day, all of it is coming together at the right time for us.
“Character is defined in tough situations, and I think that’s what defines this team. Expectations have grown here. Guys used to come in and say, ‘Let’s prove ourselves,’ they had a chip on their shoulder. We got away from that, and now we’re back to it.”
All thanks to an unexpected and tough-to-stomach loss in February.
The ACC Wrestling Championships start Saturday at 11 a.m. The Wolfpacker will provide live coverage on its website from former NC State wrestler Ryan Tice all day.
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